


Of Divine Instruments and Innocence

by bamboofoxfireproductions



Category: D.Gray-man, Okami
Genre: A lot of Brush Gods will be obtained differently, AU, Akuma, Ark arc, Ark of Yamato, Boss Battles, Crossover, Demons, Divine Instruments, Edo, Exorcists, F/M, Gen, Gods, Innocence - God's Crystal, Lots of major changes, Mainly in Okamiverse!Nippon, Mix of the Okami and Edo/Ark arc plots, Nippon, Old legends, Reincarnation, Trip to Edo Arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 00:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5647498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamboofoxfireproductions/pseuds/bamboofoxfireproductions





	1. Prologue

**Of Divine Instruments and Innocence  
A D Gray-Man and Okami Crossover**

* * *

Fou sighed and placed her hands on her hips. This was absurd, especially after all the commotion going on from the night before with the Fallen One.

"Man…I can't believe Baka-Bak is putting me up to this, out of _all_ the things he could have me doing," she complained aloud, watching the white wolf as it sniffed about with a slight limp. "Really, I'm not sure why he had to put me in charge of this. I've got much more important things to worry about." Okay, so she _did_ know why, but that didn't mean she couldn't complain about it. "I don't see why you can't just walk yourself."

The white wolf stopped and looked up at her with a quirk of its ears, whining low in its throat.

Fou sighed again and shook her head back and forth. "Ya, ya. Just hurry up, would you? I don't like leaving headquarters or that bumbling idiot unprotected. He's pretty much hopeless without me."

As if understanding, the canine barked as though to agree and turned back to walking and sniffing about for a suitable place to do business.

When it did, Fou made it a point to look elsewhere in disinterest until done. The canine shook itself off and trotted with an unsteady gait to stand in front of her, tail wagging.

"All done? Good. Then let's go back," she announced, turning around.

She walked several steps before noticing that her pure white companion had stopped and was sniffing around again, Fou making a noise of irritation.

"Oh come on, you just we- hey!" she barked, watching as the canine turned and ran the opposite way she wanted to go. Having no choice but to follow, she growled in annoyance and ran along after the limping lupine through the woods into an area shrouded by thick fog.

"I swear, if you're wasting my time chasing rabbits or something, then Holy or not, I'm gonna-!" she started to holler, not able to see enough to keep from tripping on the very canine she was chasing and falling right on top of it.

With a groan of exasperation, she sat up and rubbed her head, even as her ears were met with miniscule ranting that could rival her own.

"Hey! Watch it! Just what do you think you're doing?! You almost killed me, you know!" flamed a small, bouncing green light. "Honestly, I try to sleep for a few minutes and I almost get squished! Talk about rude!"

Even as the flea-sized critter continued to rant, Fou snatched him up in her hand, his yelling now muffled but still equally as annoying.

"Oh shut it. Blame the furball here for stopping in front of me without any warning," Fou told him flatly, before she paused as the white wolf stood with a whimper.

At first Fou was left to think maybe she'd accidentally hurt the poor creature and worsened its wounds again, but stopped and followed its form with her eyes to where the wolf was sniffing at another figure she hadn't noticed before.

The first thing she took notice of was the black and silver uniform, obviously one of their own from the Order, realizing a moment later the blood staining his clothing and trailing from his lips, skin pale and eyes hollow; glazed; unseeing.

There was no doubt in her mind. The guy had to be dead.

"God damn…" she breathed.

Her hand slackened and the little green light wriggled it's way free from her hand, hopping up and down in front of her furiously.

"I can't believe you! Snatching me up like that when I'm talking to you! Maybe I'll sting you with my trusty sword, Denkomaru! It'd serve you right, you-!" he stopped hopping and seemed to notice her not even paying attention, turning his own head to see the body and sobering.

"Oh man…just what the heck happened here?" he questioned, hopping back to stand on the nose of the wolf. "What a mess. Poor kid."

The wolf whined pitifully, golden eyes sorrowful and tail flicking slightly.

"I know you wanna help Ammy…but I don't think Rejuvination works that way."

Once again the wolf whined at him, head lowering.

Fou blew out a resigned sigh and stood up, pulling the white-haired boy onto her back with some difficulty, seeing as she was quite a bit shorter than him, and made even harder by the fact that he only had one arm to support him by. At the very least, they needed to properly dispose of the body.

"Come on, we should go back. Bak's not going to be happy about this."

With another whimper, the white canine followed alongside, gold eyes watching the boy the entire way back.


	2. The White Wolf

_'Don't stop. Keep walking.'_

A pair of unsteady footfalls staggered down the winding corridors of…whatever this place was. He hadn't the slightest idea where he'd ended up, only that he had woken in a bed with his wounds treated, and very much alive.

Alive…

That was what surprised him the most out of all of this, having been certain he had died, but now that he found that wasn't the case, he couldn't sit still, despite how much his body protested the movements.

His silvery-blue eyes were wistful and full of sorrow, not really paying attention to where he was going, but it hardly mattered, so long as he kept walking. So long as he never stopped moving forward, even if his weakened body didn't agree with him.

_Mana…_

A large, painted door barred his way, but he kept moving forward as though not noticing this.

_I made an oath. No matter what happens, I won't stop. I'll keep walking. But…where to?_

He walked a short few steps and came to stop just short of the wall keeping him from moving forward, staring at it almost in a daze as though expecting it might simply disappear and allow him exit.

When it didn't, he lifted a thickly bandaged right arm towards it, but he stopped as he heard a bark that echoed around him, whirling his head around.

A white canine regarded him calmly, and more hidden beside it was a human form that sat in the shadow of a tall stone column.

"That door won't open no matter how hard you try. Is there something you want here?" the man asked seriously.

Allen lowered his injured hand back to his side, gazing over at the stranger over his shoulder.

"Not really. I just ended up here, that's all." He turned his head back to the wall, still not satisfied to sit idly by. Not with everything that had happened, even if he was little more than a powerless human as he was now. "Is there really no way to open this door?"

"It can't be opened," the man confirmed once again, arms crossed over his chest casually. "How about going back?" he suggested, before adding as an afterthought, "What will you achieve by passing through there, anyway?"

Allen didn't bother to look over at him, raising his injured hand again to rest on the wall, looking deeply thoughtful.

" _Move forward._ " he recited, his eyes narrowed. "I don't want to stand still."

"Even with no left arm?" the man challenged immediately, catching the teen off guard and making his eyes bolt back to the figure in shock. "I don't have any particular issue about it...I'm just asking out of curiosity."

Allen paused a moment as he gazed at the man incredulously from the corner of his eye.

"Who…are you?"

"Black Order, the Chief of the Asian Branch, Bak Chan." he answered, Allen blinking in surprise and turning slightly to face him a bit more, especially as the man continued with his name. "Allen Walker…how would you like to be a clerical member here?"

Allen made a noise of question, not sure where he was going with that train of thought.

"You can start over as a supporter," Bak clarified, leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees, his eyes serious and impossible to read. "Look for another path. Even if you're not an Exorcist, there are plenty of desk duties. You can do those, right? If you do that, God won't condemn you."

As though in agreement, the white wolf sitting next to him barked softly and thumped its tail against the ground a few times from where it sat.

Allen's brows furrowed and he narrowed his eyes slightly, steely gray-blue eyes pained beneath the shadow of his bangs.

"God?" Tears shimmered in the corner of his eyes, making tracks down the side of his face as he wore a small and bitter smile. "I don't care about that."

Whirling back towards the wall, the albino slammed his bandaged arm against the wall, hard enough that the sound resonated all around the chamber, tears still falling.

"With…with my own will…I made an oath! I swore to myself, that I would destroy Akuma! To my friends, that I'd fight alongside them! To the world, that I'd save it!" he cried, his voice cracking with emotion and continuing to pound on the wall, as if that would cause it to open for him, until blood had soaked through the bandages and stained the wall with it. "I promised that I'd keep walking until the day I die!"

Bak remained silent through the boy's emotional ranting, the wolf sitting next to him uttering a soft whine of distress and stood up, ears pinned back.

He choked back a sob as he finally gave up pounding on the wall, sinking to his knees and leaving a trail of blood smeared as his arm followed down it, frustration audible in the teen's voice.

"Open! Open! …Damn it! For me to be alive…this is the only path I can take!"

Without a word, Bak pulled himself to his feet and began walking forward, a clipboard tucked just under his arm, the man stopping at the bottom of the steps.

The white wolf that had been sitting next to him went further to stop just next to Allen, tilting its head with a whine and stopping with its nose just shy of his face, deftly licking his cheek.

The boy paused a moment, still sniffling and gazed toward the golden-eyed animal, his first impulse being to reach out and pet it, but with his left arm gone and his right bandaged and now bloody, he didn't, turning shimmering eyes over his shoulder as he noticed Bak only some feet behind him.

"Very well," Bak said, looking at Allen in an appraising manner. "Allen Walker, your Innocence isn't dead."

This bit of news was shocking, to say the least, and Allen perked up slightly though his expression was one of disbelief.

"However, before I could tell you that, I had to confirm your true feelings," he went on to explain further. "Learning about the Fallen Ones; knowing the bitter taste of death; to assess if you could return to the battlefield again; and to stop you from becoming a Fallen One."

Bak smiled wryly and gave a small shrug, as well as a wink as he added, "Although, saying you don't care about God might have been a bit overboard."

Allen looked sheepish and offered up a smile that was both relieved and maybe a touch embarrassed. He flinched away as the wolf once again licked his face, a bit more invading of his space this time and wagging its tail, before sitting back of its own accord and barking at him once again, panting with a seemingly wolfish grin.

"Let's go," Bak announced with a light smile. "Wong's been searching for you for quite some time to change those bandages. When that's done, we'll talk about restoring your left arm."

* * *

"Long ago, our ancestors built this place as a hidden sanctuary," Wong explained as he led the way through the Asian Branch, Allen gazing about curiously. "Even now, it keeps expanding and is larger than the main headquarters."

Fou wore a cynical smirk as she glanced over at Allen, a mischievous glint to her eyes. "Take care not to get lost, Walker. There was one guy that got lost for a week and died of starvation."

Allen's eyes widened and he turned his head back fast enough to warrant possible whiplash, mouth slightly agape at the idea of that, and looking a bit worried on account of his lousy sense of direction.

"I'll be fine…but I do get lost easily…"

"L-let's not talk about that!" Bak tactfully tried to change the subject, all the while their small procession never stopping.

Allen could only nod his agreement before turning to look over his shoulder slightly. A white wolf trailed close at his heels, having been following him since it first approached when he met Bak at the closed entrance. The canine seemed to have taken a liking to him.

"So…um, I can't help but ask, but what's with the wolf?"

It wasn't as though he had never seen a tamed wolf before, especially when working at different circus' as a child, but this was the first time he'd seen any kind of animals within the Order. That was what seemed a little strange to him most of all.

Bak glanced back at him even as said wolf trotted a few paces to walk alongside the boy rather than behind, tilting its head up at him almost as though knowing that he was talking about it.

"As you saw before, there are quite a number of Akuma which dwelled around the sea between here and Edo, so many ships fall victim to them before reaching port here. As it so happens, she was found amongst the wreckage of one of those ships in a cage, injured but alive, only some weeks before you and the other Exorcists arrived here," Bak explained. "She's been here since then, rehabilitating. There isn't much more to it than that."

Allen hummed in thought, having turned to look at Bak and now returning his gaze to the wolf. "A cage on a ship, huh? Was she someone's pet or something?"

Before Bak or anyone else could get a word in, instead came a small, high-pitched voice that seemed as if it came from the wolf herself.

"Bah! Ammy ain't no one's pet, just cuz she's friendly!"

Allen stopped abruptly with wide eyes, causing Fou to run into his back and utter an exclamation of surprise. The wolf walked a few more steps before noticing and turning to the side to look at him.

"Did- did that wolf just talk?"

"Nope!" the voice came again. Allen noticed a faintly glowing light suddenly bounce up from atop the wolf's head, up and down. "Ammy here can't talk, silly! Just like most other animals. It was me that said that!"

Having a little trouble pegging exactly what the… talking light actually was, Allen couldn't help but lean forward to get a closer look, squinting slightly.

"Okay…not a talking wolf…but a talking flea?"

"Hey!" the `flea` barked, hopping more rapidly than before. The light, which was reminiscent of a neon green similar to that of Innocence, then suddenly seemed to blaze red. "I am most certainly not a flea! The name's Issun! Ya got that?!"

Automatically, the teen held up his bandaged arm in placation, looking apologetic. "Sorry, my mistake. But, um…what are you then, exactly?"

The pint-sized…whatever he was, seemed to calm as the blazing red aura that surrounded him returned to a light green.

"I'm what you guys on this side of the water call a Sprite, but if you want to get specific I'm a specific type called a Poncle!"

"I see," Allen hummed.

"The wolf's name is Amaterasu," Bak explained, glancing between them. "Though many of us often shorten it to 'Ammy'."

"Hehe, you can thank me for that one!" Issun piped smugly.

"Amaterasu, huh?" Allen mused, the wolf giving a slight bark. He couldn't place a reason behind it, but for some reason he got a strange feeling about the wolf. He supposed it wasn't really important though. At the moment, he needed to focus on getting his arm back.

* * *

"This is the sealed door I came across before," Allen noted aloud, gazing up at it with a questioning look.

Claws clicked on stone, the white wolf that had been, not for the first time, following directly behind him trotting up the few steps and up to the wall.

With a whine and wag of its tail, it paced a circle a couple of times before sitting down and looking at it as though willing to huge doorway to open with no avail, similarly to Allen before.

"What are we doing here?"

"I'd like you to engage in serious combat from here on," Bak stated seriously and to-the-point.

Allen blinked and gave Bak a questioning look, uttering an equally confused, "Huh?"

Bak didn't go on to elaborate and instead turned his dark eyes to the doorway.

"Fou!"

There was an echoing sigh before Fou's voice followed, sounding annoyed, "What a pain in the ass."

Lightning seemed to crackle along the surface of the wall, making Allen whirl on his heel to face it in surprise and Amaterasu to hop up with a delighted yip, tail thrumming back and forth.

Only a moment later, the girl seemed to fade straight out of the wall like a phantom, light surrounding her and the space where she protruded from, her eyes glowing inhumanly.

"My job isn't to be a babysitter, you know, Baka Bak."

When Allen remained silent in shock, blinking a couple of times, Bak went on to explain, "She's not human. She's a protective guardian with a crystalized body, made by my great-grandfather."

"Basically, a warrior that protects this place," she simplified, lightning like energy continuing to crackle across the wall all around her. "I'm pretty strong, Walker."

The glow dissipated from Fou's eyes and she bore something of a cocky smirk, suddenly lunging forward with arms made of long, menacing blades longer than she was tall, blazing forward so quickly that he barely even had the time to see them coming until one had stopped just short of his throat.

Fou leveled him with a dark glare.

"Off with…your head."

Allen drew in an unsettled breath even as a bead of sweat nervously trailed down his brow, uncertain for a long moment as she held her ground like that if she was serious about taking his head off.

After several tense seconds, she smirked cynically and whirled around to pull her blade away, but not without kicking him with such great force that it sent the teen flying across the chamber and into a thick stone pillar hard enough to crack the stone.

The breath was knocked from his body from the impact and he slid to the floor, dazed, as both Bak and Wong couldn't help but cover their eyes, anguished themselves at even having to watch that display.

Amaterasu yipped in a manner that sounded worried as well and leapt up to canter to where Allen had fallen.

Fou didn't even flinch as she stepped forward, waiting for him to recover before going at him again, a dark smirk gracing her lips.

"Bring it on, full force, squirt," she challenged, idly wondering to herself if he really would get up and try to continue the fight or wuss out. "If you don't activate your Innocence all the way, I'll kill you for real."

Amaterasu uttered another whine and flattened her ears, giving the kid's face a soft nudge with her nose.

With a soft groan of discomfort and a couple of ragged breaths, the teen staggered to his feet unsteadily with a bit of effort, swaying on his feet slightly, a thin trail of blood trickling down one corner of his lips.

"Th-this is the quickest way to learn about your Innocence!" Bak blurted out after a moment, his voice having raised several octaves, sounding a bit flustered, if not outright scared. "People often develop rapidly when faced with a crisis! If you're cornered, the pressure might force you to win!"

Not immediately answering or saying anything by way of reply, Allen turned his head the other way and spit a wad of blood to the stone floor, both Amaterasu's and Bak's eyes following it in concern and the wolf uttering another concerned whine.

"That's what I was thinking, but maybe we should stop, Walker," Bak finished, second-guessing his decision, and Wong nodding his agreement. Allen was still recovering after all. Maybe they'd jumped the gun a little too much? "This plan might be…a little…dangerous, I guess."

Allen lifted his bandaged arm to wipe away the blood still staining his lips, even as he said, "I'll do it", surprising all other occupants of the room, looking up now at Fou with a determined gleam to his blue eyes.

Fou only smiled in satisfaction as he shouldered off the jacket he'd had draped over him, the teen wearing a determined smile of his own. Amaterasu only snorted and sat back on her haunches, flicking her ears at him silently.

"This 'victory under pressure' plan…might not be such a bad idea after all."

* * *

"What do you think of Allen Walker?" Bak asked curiously, standing just beside the sealed door as a circle of light shone from it where Fou was resting.

Amaterasu paced up and down the wall, sniffing at the furthest bottom edge before doubling back and sitting just opposite the pool of light as Bak, yawning with a languid stretch before looking about as though bored and trying to locate something interesting to occupy her attention.

Fou couldn't help but scoff slightly.

"What can I say? He's not up to it at all. His movements are slow and I don't feel any spirit from him. He's useless."

Bak hummed thoughtfully.

"But don't you think you were going at him too seriously?"

"Aren't you the one who instructed me to do that, Baka Bak?" Fou challenged in response. The man wore a wry smile as she pointed that out.

"Ah! I did, didn't I?" he stated, playing somewhat coy.

"However," Fou continued, causing Bak to glance over, making a noise of question. "Even though he's an annoying guy, there's something I can't put my finger on.

"He's chosen," Bak shrugged with a smile. "To live as an Exorcist. His determination is the real thing."

"Yes," Fou agreed somberly, while Amaterasu seemed to agree as well with a soft bark.

Having seemed to of tired, either of their presence or just being tired in general, she shook herself off and stood on all fours, trotting down the steps and away from the two, winding her way through various halls until she had found the room where that boy was residing while he was here.

Circling around the end of the bed, she perked up slightly to gaze at him with ears pricked and wise gold eyes, assured to see that he was sleeping soundly before stretching luxuriously across the floor.

The wolfess bent her head around to gnaw lightly at the irritation dully throbbing underneath the gauze wrappings down her leg and shoulder where the very edges of a pale grey star pattern barely managed to show beneath her radiant white fur, before finally settling down to sleep herself.


	3. Purification

Allen's pulse fluttered in his chest like it had been jumpstarted from a still, non-existent beat, growing into a steady rhythm that pumped heat through the core of his body, quickly spreading to his limbs all the way down to the tips of his fingers and made the hair on his head prickle. The appearance of the glass-like gear monocle was enough to tell him that what had appeared before him from the black shard-like fragments hovering in the air was an Akuma, but it wasn't one like he had ever seen before.

More importantly, its presence filled him with... a _feeling_. One he couldn't immediately place. It made his breaths short, his heart erratically palpitating and causing him to quiver and prickle. It was with alarm, certainly. How could he not be alarmed? In this alleged safe place, something he couldn't explain happened to Fou - something that he got the impression of _hurting_ her - and a strange Akuma had come from seemingly nowhere, with no warning.

Was it... fear? His pulse in his ears made it difficult, if not impossible, to hear what was being said around him. Fear was the natural response, wasn't it?

But no... it wasn't that. There was alarm, and there was a healthy dose of fear, but there was also something else.

Exhilaration?

...why would he feel something that seemed so... _thrilling_?

He was brought back out if his thoughts by a silky weight against his thigh, a low, menacing growl rising from the canine standing next to him. He couldn't help thinking that the wolf was too daring for its own good, Amaterasu standing in a locked pose with hackles raised at his side and fangs bared.

Allen's eyes wandered to Fou, his brows knitted tightly in concern, before they travelled upwards.

 _Why?_ Why was there an Akuma here?! And how?!

As his gaze continued to wander, it landed on a blackish form perched on the Akuma's hand, which closely resembled a...

He couldn't help but gape with wide eyes as his memory flashed back to the bamboo grove where he and Suman had landed after stopping the Fallen Innocence, and where he'd had his near-deadly encounter with that Noah man.

"That butterfly!"

"Wa-...lker..." Fou wheezed through grit teeth, drawing his attention back to her. "...Run... He's come to kill you. The way you are, you have no chance. Run for it!"

Allen scoffed to himself in stubborn refusal, tightening his fist. _No way_ he would simply run and leave her to fend for herself! Even if his arm wasn't restored to its proper form, even if he could only do a small amount compared to before his Innocence had been dismantled by that suit-dressed Noah, he was still an exorcist. He wouldn't run from a fight against an Akuma! Not so long as he still drew breath.

"I can't-!" he began, words cutting short as a sharp sensation and glowing line centered _through_ his chest.

"I won't allow something like that!" the Akuma declared with a casual confidence, grinning wicked shark-teeth at him.

Allen instinctively stepped back and fell from the ledge he was standing on when the thin beam of light pierced through him, hearing several shouts of his name as he fell. His entire body shivered with a rigidness through his muscles like an electrical current, which quickly escalated to a full-on shock that made him writhe and scream in agony. It felt as though every last cell in his body was caught in a blazing inferno and trying to rip apart into trillions of separate pieces all at once, his ears roaring to a deafening pitch.

Abruptly, the sensation cut off, and he heard a loud crash that shook the walls and floors. Someone was shouting - he thought it was Bak - but it was difficult to tell with how his consciousness faded in and out. He regained enough awareness to recognize he was on someone's back, and that they were running by the slight jolting motions, and couldn't help opening his eyes expecting the Akuma to be right there on top of them, ready to kill as it was so sorrowfully programmed to do.

There was some back-and-forth about the strange Akuma Allen had never before seen, discussing that it was a more recently discovered Level 3 and talking about quartering the Akuma off into one of the evacuated sections until they had a way to fight it properly.

Before he knew it, the Akuma was nearing too fast for Bak to seal off the area and Fou took on his image to fight and stall it in his place, no matter how much he protested, leaving him grasping uselessly at the wall and Amaterasu circling behind him with an anxious whine. Everyone there tried to argue him down and force him away from the wall for several minutes that he couldn't afford to waste, and finally he had enough and snapped.

"Earlier, when I met that Akuma... the blood within me that I thought was frozen became excited and flooded my entire body. The heart which had long stopped beating began throbbing faster and faster within me. The feeling of my blood growing ever warmer as it circulated felt great."

Everyone stood still and silent as he tried to put to words what he had felt earlier, tried to communicate that even if his arm wasn't yet restored, more than anything, he _needed_ to do this. He needed to keep moving forward, to keep making a difference no matter how small. That sitting idle without purpose even when what he needed to do was _right in front of him_ was _killing_ him inside, making him weep tears of frustration and longing.

"I understand now. Before, when you said my very existence is an Akuma-fighting weapon... you may have been right."

He finally thought he understood why his Innocence wouldn't invocate until now, and what he needed to make it work, for his Innocence to return to its proper form, was right in front of him, if only he could make it past this damn wall that Bak had put between him and it.

"The thing my heart was constantly searching for was the Akuma! I'm no longer a human! I'm an Exorcist. Please let me return to the battlefield. To the Akuma."

He felt it just before the room lit up - the Innocence heeding him and the overwhelming need in his chest, and in the instant the light blinded everyone momentarily, he moved to the wall with steadfast resolve, the air ringing like chimes with the static energy of his disembodied weapon.

"I'm going. Thank you, Mr. Bak."

He heard the man start to protest and then stop almost immediately, relenting and opening the passage for him to continue through it. As soon as the way was clear, he moved without hesitation, scaling the smoking rubble and running to find where Fou and the Level Three had ended up.

It wasn't terribly difficult to figure out the direction they had gone, following the path of carnage through one passageway and into another, then another. He would have kept sprinting without pause, but he heard the sound of clicking following him that he knew wasn't him, nor the Akuma or Fou, and paused to whirl around, only to find Amaterasu following him. He stopped and stood to bar their way.

"No! You can't go with me. Only Exorcists can fight against Akuma."

Issun openly scoffed. "Pah! And let you go it alone? Not a chance!"

"It's dangerous," Allen insisted, pointing a finger at the white wolf. "Stay."

Amaterasu simply looked up at him and sniffed dismissal, starting to trot around him. Reflexively, he reached out and grabbed her tightly by the scruff of the neck.

What he didn't expect was a reaction, not from Amaterasu, but from his Innocence. The green light that had surrounded him before crackled with renewed energy and he instinctively took a step back in surprise, letting her go. For a moment he could only stare, recognizing something that he had somehow failed to notice before, or if he had, he hadn't registered exactly that the faint gray spots in her coat formed the shape of five-point _stars_. Pentacles, to be exact.

"What the-..."

Suddenly, he noticed them fade as the light green lightning trails crackled across her form and then vanished entirely, taking the gray stars with it.

That wasn't the end of the strangeness of it.

Moments afterwards, flames sprung to life out of nowhere, first out wide and then all streaming in a whirlpool until they were just above Amaterasu's back, and somewhere between the flames, a dark greenish disc of stone appeared in the center, hovering on open air. Along with the appearance of the flames and stone disc came swirling red markings in her fur - streaking around her eyes, down her forehead, chest, and down her shoulders and flanks. Suddenly she also sprouted long wing-like protrusions, smaller 'wings' on the outside of each ankle/paw and larger ones from each shoulder.

Completely at a loss for words, he could only stare dumbly, not sure what he was seeing or what exactly just transpired.

"Oh! Ammy, your markings and the reflector are back!" Apparently Issun was surprised too, albeit for completely different reasons as him. "That virus thing must have finally gotten purified out of your system, huh?"

"The Akuma virus?" Allen couldn't help but question. How was that even possible? Unless Amaterasu was in some way related to Innocence... "What do you mean 'finally purified out of your system'? How did she not die?"

"Hehe~ Ammy here ain't just a wolf, you know! Ammy is a God! A real famous one where we come from, too! Something like that isn't going to get rid of her! Although it did manage to repress her powers for a while... I don't know how, but it doesn't matter. We're back in action!"

Allen didn't have time to ponder what he was being told, or even to decide what to do next before heading towards the battle against the Akuma. Amaterasu made the choice of whatever came next for him as she knocked his legs out from under him so that he landed on her back, ending up with a fistful of white fur as he caught himself.

"Hang on tight!" Issun warned as Amaterasu bunched her muscles under him. "Ammy here is no pushover when it comes to speed."

"Wha-?" Allen managed to yelp out before the wolf leapt forward into a full-on sprint, giving him no choice but to hold on or be thrown.


End file.
